Noisy environments, such as worksites, airfields, and the like, may include noise sources that have the potential to damage the hearing of a person. A person operating in a noisy environment may experience hearing loss from acute acoustic trauma or gradually developing noise-induced hearing loss. Acute acoustic trauma may cause hearing loss from a one-time exposure to an excessive noise level, whereas gradually developing noise-induced hearing loss may result from exposure to unsafe noise levels over an extended period of time.
To prevent hearing damage, a person operating in noisy environment may wear hearing protection. Hearing protection may be passive or active. Passive hearing protection includes earplugs and earmuffs that block noise up to a particular noise level. Active hearing protection may include earmuffs that permit certain types of noise to pass through to a person by electronically filtering out particular decibels or frequencies.
Although various forms of hearing protection may provide adequate protection against excessive noise, persons wearing such hearing protection may need to communicate with one another. In noisy environments, communicating with one another may be difficult while wearing hearing protection due to noise from noise sources and filtering from the hearing protection. In some scenarios, a person wearing hearing protection may carry an additional and separate communication device to facilitate communication with other individuals in a noisy environment. Although separate communication devices may facilitate such communication, the person may be required to carry two separate devices (hearing protection and communication device), which may be coupled by a cable. Such two-device configurations can impede a person's movement, hinder the likelihood of communicating, and/or potentially introduce safety risks (e.g., if the cable becomes entangled on the user or other objects in the environment).